Our First Emotional Video Game Moment

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Many adolescent memories.

By IGN's Misty-Eyed Editors

We asked IGN editors to share the story of the first video game moment that made them feel emotional. Surprisingly, no one brought up Aerith in Final Fantasy VII. Read on to find out which moments of pixel and polygon drama managed to make us misty-eyed:

A Devastating Death - Silent Hill

I remember bawling - properly bawling - when it was revealed that Lisa was dead in the first Silent Hill. It was due to her helplessness, I think. Remember how she staggered towards Harry, bleeding from everywhere, begging for help? The moment was a precursor to much of the Sixth Sense, which I saw years later and was similarly shaken by. I guess Lisa was the first dead character I'd seen in a game or a movie who wasn't either evil or beautifully ethereal; merely stuck, and lonely, and terrified. - Lucy O’Brien

One of my very first memories of being emotionally affected by a video game was during Final Fantasy IV. The hero Cecil and his friends had just battled Cagnazzo, and as they were leaving Baron Castle the walls suddenly began to close in. It was looking bad, until the child mages Palam and Porom made the brave decision to turn themselves to stone in order to stop the walls from crushing their friends. It’s an incredibly heartbreaking scene, and one I still get misty-eyed over. - Meghan Sullivan

Platforming Rage - Donkey Kong Country 2

The first time I raged at a game was thanks to Donkey Kong Country 2. It was in one of the harder levels with barrels where you have to navigate through a zillion twisted, thorny vines. I was little back then, and I remember this one level had pricked me for the last couple hours. Maybe I'm just bad at timing? Anyway, I remember getting near the end and almost making it, then barrel blasting right into a vine in front of the finish line. I dropped a loud F bomb and threw my controller across my room in frustration, at which point Mom came in with a LEAH BETH JACKSON WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! So much, Mom. - Leah Jackson

I can easily pinpoint time and place that a video game first made me legitimately emotional. I spent the summer of ’92 burning through my older brother’s copy of A Link to the Past. For those few months, I became one with my SNES. Navigating the ingenious dungeons, exploring the gorgeous world, and hoarding rupees like a fiend were all extraordinary experiences for my five-year-old self. But then it happened. The moment that broke me. I came across the Haunted Grove in the Dark World, I met Flute Boy for the second time. But as I approached, he stopped playing his iconic song, and instead transformed into a strange, sad creature thanks to the cursed Golden Power. Seeing this young boy sentenced to purgatory, then having to relay the message to his father was heartbreaking and melancholy before I even knew what the hell melancholy even meant. - Marty Sliva

Entranced From the First Moment - Atari VCS

When I was three years old my parents bought an Atari VCS. I remember sitting on my living room floor in Alabama holding the joystick and making fake firing noises while my dad rigged the console to the TV. We played Air Sea Battle and the brand new home port of Pac Man for hours. Captivated by the beeps and blips, I resisted taking breaks even to visit the bathroom. I didn't want to stop for food, for sleep, for toys, for anything. "Just one more game, just one more game," I begged...and I don't think that mantra has left my mind for a moment ever since. - Jared Petty

When the final episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Game ended (don’t worry, no spoilers), I was emotionally affected in a way I’d never been by a game before. After that final scene, the screen faded to black and I simply sat in stunned silence, with – no joke – my mouth hanging open. I was moved by what had just taken place and the story that had just ended. I absolutely, positively, had to talk to someone, even though it was midnight. So I called Mitch Dyer, hoping he’d be awake. Much to my relief, he was, and since he’d finished the game earlier that day, we shared our thoughts and emotional reactions to the ending over a half-hour phone call in the middle of the night. Thanks again for that, Mitch. - Ryan McCaffrey

A Moment's Rest - Ico

I remember playing Ico on PS2, and there’s such greatness throughout the game – sequences that so many people point to as “evidence” that a game can make you cry – but what got me was the benches.

I had slayed fiends, soved puzzles, rescued a mysterious girl, and witnessed astounding views. Even early on, the game has thrown overwhelming moments at me. Then the hero and his damsel come across a bench – a couch, really. The bench is glowing, and there’s no other furnishing throughout the castle, so it must mean something, right? So I click a button, and my character sits down, and then my little friend sits down next to me. And they rest. Two friends sit in a couch in a cold, cold world, no other humans in sight and no words exchaged between the two of them. And I said out loud – I caught myself doing this – “Awe, that’s nice!”

Sure, it’s just a save point marker, but using this bench evokes natural and immediate understanding – how it instills the sensation of “rest” by being couch-shaped, how your little hero looks so, so small as he sits in the oversized chair in this massive castle, how there are only two seats, just enough room for Ico and Yorda. It’s pure game interactivity, emotional response created with no scripted event or voice-acting or music swell. I simply found an object, pushed a button, and the characters sat down. And in that moment, I felt that all three of us had earned a rest. - Marc Nix

Final Fantasy X has always been an incredibly important game to me. It's the entry that got me interested in one of my favorite franchises of all time, but it's also the game I've invested the most time in (bar World of Warcraft, but let's not open that door). My first but by no means last playthrough finished at 2am, after I’d had my arse handed to me by Jecht for almost four hours. I then watched the incredibly powerful closing cinematic and, having spent over 120 hours with these characters I now loved, promptly burst into tears, before stumbling into my dad’s room looking for a hug. He now loathes Final Fantasy as a result, largely because it deprived him of sleep. One time. Over a decade ago. He is an unforgiving man. - Luke Karmali

A DIFFERENT Shocking Death - Final Fantasy VII

Almost all of my most memorable video game moments from childhood involve an emotional reaction of one kind or another. I remember thinking no video game character would ever be as cool as Knuckles. I remember being in absolutely awe of how huge and limitless the original Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest felt. The Legend of Zelda's golden NES cart was unbelievably epic for little Justin, too.

But I wouldn't experience what I consider a truly meaningful emotional reaction to a video game until several years later, when I was a tween playing Final Fantasy VII. And no, it isn't that death. It's actually the moment that players discover the ruthless and powerful President of the Shinra Corporation... dead in his office. The murder scene is grisly and shocking. Discovering his body felt like a legitimate plot twist. It felt like a scene out of the movie, and gave FF VII a gravitas that it didn't really have, prior to that moment. It made my jaw drop, and set the tone for the world-spanning adventure that would follow. - Justin Davis

What's the first video game moment that you remember making you feel emotional? Leave a comment below and join the discussion.